| Part of a series on the |
| Culture of the Philippines |
|---|
 |
| Society |
| Arts and literature |
| Other |
| Symbols |
 Philippines portal |
The bahay kubo, kubo, or payag (in the Visayan languages) is a type of stilt house indigenous to the Philippines. [1] [2] It often serves as an icon of Philippine culture. [3] The house is exclusive to the lowland population of unified Spanish conquered territories. Its design heavily influenced the colonial-era bahay na bato architecture.
The Filipino term báhay kúbo roughly means "country house", from Tagalog. The term báhay ("house") is derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balay referring to "public building" or "community house"; [4] while the term kúbo ("hut" or "[one-room] country hut") is from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *kubu, "field hut [in rice fields]". [5]
The term "nipa hut", introduced during the Philippines' American colonial era, refers to the hut version of bahay kubo. While nipa leaves were the thatching (pawid) material often used for the roofs, not all bahay kubo are huts or used nipa materials.
Distinction between each tribes and cultures' style may have been more visible during the pre-hispanic period. Different architectural designs are present among each ethnolinguistic group in what is now the Philippines and throughout the Southeast Asia and Pacific as part of the whole Austronesian architecture.
They were designed to endure the climate and environment of the Philippines. [6] These structures were temporary, made from plant materials like bamboo. [7] The accessibility of the materials made it easier to rebuild when damaged by a storm or earthquake. [7]
The advent of the Spanish colonial era introduced the idea of building more permanent communities around church and government centers.
Christianized peoples such as the Tagalogs, Visayans, Ilocanos, Kapampangans, Bicolanos, Cagayanons, Mestizos, Criollos, Chinese and Japanese were send to live in the lowlands. This established a community with most population of Austronesian origin, each having their own distinct traditions of Austronesian architecture, dating back even before the Hispanic period. They collectively evolved a style of construction that soon became synonymous with the lowland culture architecture known as bahay kubo.
Appearance varies from simple huts, later known by the Americans as nipa huts, to mansions like bahay na bato. Architectural designs and furnishings varied from standard Filipino, Chinese, Americas, European to eclectic.
The new community also setup made construction using heavier, more permanent materials desirable. Some of these materials included bricks, mortar, tiles and stone. [7]
Finding European construction styles impractical in local conditions, Spanish and Filipino builders quickly adapted the characteristics of the bahay kubo and combined it with Spanish architectural style.
Bahay na bato or Casa Filipino is a torogan and bahay kubo with noticeable Spanish and Chinese influence. Its design evolved throughout the ages but maintained its nipa hut architectural roots. Its most common appearance is like that of stilt nipa hut that stands on Spanish style stone blocks or bricks as a foundation instead of wood or bamboo stilts.
The bahay na bato, followed the nipa hut's arrangements such as open ventilation and elevated apartments. It was popular among the elite or middle class and integrated the characteristics of the nipa hut with the style, culture, and technology of Spanish architecture. [6] [8] The differences between the two houses were their foundational materials. The bahay na bato was constructed out of brick and stone rather than the traditional bamboo materials. It is a mixture of native Filipino, Spanish and Chinese influences.
During the 19th century, wealthy Filipinos built houses with solid stone foundations or brick lower walls, and overhanging. Wooden upper story/stories with balustrades. The ventanillas and capiz shell sliding windows were both native Filipino influences to the design. The tiled roof that often replaced the Nipa roof were influenced by the Chinese. [9]
Bahay na bato had a rectangular plan that reflected the Hispano-American Antillean architectural style integrated with traditional Philippine style. [8] Today these houses are more commonly called ancestral houses.
The hut was typically made of local building materials found in nature such as wood, bamboo and cogon grass. Similar to modern Feng shui, vernacular and superstitious reasons for the materials are considered. [10]
The bahay kubo was elevated above ground or water on stilts as protection from pests, predators and floods, and usually consisted of one room where the whole family would dine, sleep and do other household activities; thus, access to the hut was by ladder. The roof was made of palm leaves smoked for waterproofing and consisted of long steep eaves to allow water to flow down more easily. The windows to the hut were large to allow cool air in. Similar conditions in Philippine lowland areas have led to characteristics "typical" of examples of bahay kubo. [11]
The traditional roof shape of the bahay kubo is tall and steeply pitched, with an apex called the "angkub" and long eaves descending from it. [2] A tall roof creates space above the living area through which warm air could rise, giving the bahay kubo a natural cooling effect even during the dry season. The steep pitch allows water to flow down quickly at the height of the monsoon season while the long eaves give people a limited space to move about around the house's exterior when it rains. [2] The steep pitch of the roofs is often used to explain why many bahay kubo survived the ash fall from the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, when more 'modern' houses collapsed from the weight of the ash. [2]
Raised up on hardwood stilts which serve as the main posts of the house, bahay kubo have a silong (the Tagalog word also means "shadow") area under the living space for a number of reasons, the most important of which are to create a buffer area for rising waters during floods and to prevent pests such as rats from getting up to the living area. [2] This section of the house is often used for storage, and sometimes for raising farm animals, [11] and thus may or may not be fenced off.
The main living area is designed to let in as much fresh air and natural light as possible. Smaller bahay kubo will often have bamboo slat floors which allow cool air to flow into the living space from the silong below (in which case the silong is not usually used for items which produce strong smells) A bahay kubo may be built without an atip (ceiling) so that hot air can rise straight into the large area just beneath the roof and out through strategically placed vents.
The walls are always of light material such as wood, bamboo rods, or bamboo mats called "amakan", "sawali", or “kalakat” in Cebuano. As such, they tend to let some coolness flow naturally through them during hot times and keep warmth in during the cold wet season.
The cube shape distinctive of the bahay kubo arises from the fact that it is easiest to pre-build the walls and then attach them to the wooden stilt-posts that serve as the corners of the house. The construction of a bahay kubo is therefore usually modular, with the wooden stilts established first, a floor frame built next, then wall frames, and finally, the roof.[ citation needed ]
Bahay kubo are typically built with large windows, to let in more air and natural light. The most traditional are large awning windows, held open by a wooden rod. [2] Sliding windows are also common, made either with plain wood or with wooden Capiz shell frames which allow some light to enter the living area even with the windows closed. In more recent decades inexpensive jalousie windows became common.
In larger examples, the large upper windows may be augmented with smaller windows called ventanillas (Spanish for "little window") underneath, which can be opened for ventilation to let in additional air on especially hot days. [2]
Some bahay kubo, especially those built for long-term residences, feature a batalan ("wet area" or "pantaw") distinct from other sections of the house—usually jutting out somewhat from one of the walls. Sometimes at the same level as the living area and sometimes at ground level, the batalan can contain any combination of cooking and dishwashing area, bathing area and, in some cases, a lavatory.
Batalan used for cooking and washing dishes were known as banggéra in Philippine Spanish (also banggerahan or pinganan). It is named after the banga earthen water-jars which are placed on a jutting structure of spaced bamboo or wooden slats. [12]
A granary detached from the house where harvested rice is kept.
The walls of the living area are made of light materials. Posts, walls, and floors are typically made of wood or bamboo and other light materials. The thatched roof is often made of nipa, anahaw or some other locally plentiful plant. Thus, making it easier for the nipa huts to be moved if needed.
A nipa hut is an icon of Philippine culture as it represents the Filipino value of bayanihan , which refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve an objective. [3] [13]
A famous folk song Bahay Kubo often sung in schools which mentions a small house surrounded by vegetables goes like this:
The song is a generalization of what a nipa hut would have looked like during the pre-colonial era: a house surrounded by locally cultivated plants. This does not take into account the early and diverse variants of native royalties, particularly those of the Mindanao region which has heavy Islamic architectural influences.
American architect and engineer William Le Baron Jenney visited the Philippines for three months in 1850. [15] [16] He noticed that during a storm, bahay kubo structures are very "light and flexible"; they only seem to dance and sway through storms. This inspired him to emulate the flexibility of bahay kubo in 1879 when he built the first lighter building. In 1884, he built the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, the first metal-framed skyscraper in the United States. Because of this, he became known as "The Father of Modern American Skyscrapers", and the Home Insurance building would become the predecessor of all the modern skyscrapers in the world.
The bahay kubo also inspired architects such as Francisco Mañosa and Leandro Locsin by incorporating elements of the bahay na bato into their own designs especially seen in Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Arts Center, Coconut Palace, and Light Rail Transit stations. [17]
Bahay kubo is an example of Austronesian architecture. Other examples of native Austronesian architecture in the Philippines also include structures like the fayu and katyufong of Bontoc; bale and abong of Ifugao; binayon of Kalinga; binangiyan of Kankanai; jin-jin of Ivatan; baley of the Matigsalug; binanwa of Ata; bolloy of Klata; baoy of Ovu-Manuvo; bale of the Bagobo Tagabawa; bong-gumne of Blaan; uyaanan of Mansaka; gunu-bong of T'boli; lawig,mala-a-walai,langgal, lamin and torogan of the Maranao; bay-sinug of Tausug; lumah of Yakan; and others.
The culture of the Philippines is characterized by cultural and ethnic diversity. Although the multiple ethnic groups of the Philippine archipelago have only recently established a shared Filipino national identity, their cultures were all shaped by the geography and history of the region, and by centuries of interaction with neighboring cultures, and colonial powers. In more recent times, Filipino culture has also been influenced through its participation in the global community.
Malay houses refer to the vernacular dwellings of the Malays, an ethno-linguistic group inhabiting Sumatra, coastal Borneo and the Malay Peninsula.
Spanish colonial architecture represents Spanish colonial influence on New World and East Indies' cities and towns, and it is still seen in the architecture as well as in the city planning aspects of conserved present-day cities. These two visible aspects of the city are connected and complementary. The 16th-century Laws of the Indies included provisions for the layout of new colonial settlements in the Americas and elsewhere.
Francisco "Bobby" Tronqued Mañosa was a Filipino architect considered one of the most influential Filipino architects of the 20th century for having pioneered the art of Philippine neovernacular architecture. His contributions to the development of Philippine architecture led to his recognition as a National Artist of the Philippines for Architecture in 2018.
A palapa is an open-sided dwelling with a thatched roof made of dried palm leaves. It is very useful in hot weather and, therefore, very common on Mexican beaches and deserts.
The architecture of the Philippines reflects the historical and cultural traditions in the country. Most prominent historic structures in the archipelago are influenced by Austronesian, American architectures.
Rumah adat are traditional houses built in any of the vernacular architecture styles of Indonesia, collectively belonging to the Austronesian architecture. The traditional houses and settlements of the several hundreds ethnic groups of Indonesia are extremely varied and all have their own specific history. It is the Indonesian variants of the whole Austronesian architecture found all over places where Austronesian people inhabited from the Pacific to Madagascar each having their own history, culture and style.
The Quema House is the ancestral home of the Quema family in the Philippines. Built in the 1820s, it is a historic landmark in the town of Vigan, Ilocos Sur in the Philippines. The town itself was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
An ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family, particularly the home owned and preserved by the same family for several generations. The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as a town, a region, or an entire country. An ancestral home may be a physical place, part of a series of places that one associates with state, nation or region. In the latter cases, the phrase ancestral homeland might be used. In particular, the concept of a diaspora requires the concept of an ancestral home from which the diaspora emanates. However, it is also possible that "[t]he family living in an ancestral home is surrounded by visible, physical symbols of family continuity and solidarity".
A torogan is a traditional ancestral house built by the Maranao people of Lanao, Mindanao, Philippines for the nobility. A torogan was a symbol of high social status. Such a residence was once a home to a sultan or datu in the Maranao community. Nowadays, concrete houses are found all over Maranaw communities, but there remain torogans a hundred years old. The best-known are in Dayawan and Marawi City, and around Lake Lanao.
The Rizal Shrine in Calamba is a reproduction of the original two-story, Spanish-colonial style house in Calamba, Laguna where José Rizal was born on June 19, 1861. Rizal is regarded as one of the greatest national heroes of the Philippines.
The Bernardino Jalandoni Museum, also known as the Bernardino Jalandoni House, located along Rizal Street, Silay City, in the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines, is the original residence of the late Don Bernardino and Doña Ysabel Jalandoni. The museum is also known as the "Pink House" because of its conspicuous pink paint that easily grabs attention.
This is a list of historic houses in Santa Ana, Manila, the Philippines.
The Don Antonio Maxino House, also known as Casa Unisan, is a heritage house museum originally located at town of Kalilayan in Tayabas province. It was built in 1839 by Don Antonio Maxino. The house was claimed to be the first bahay-na-bato of the municipality. In 2007, the half-ruined house was sold to Jose L. Acuzar by a remaining family member. Unfortunately, the rest of the Maxinos were massacred by bandits, or tulisan.
The field of Indigenous architecture refers to the study and practice of architecture of, for and by Indigenous people. It is a field of study and practice in the United States, Australia, Aotearoa, Canada, Arctic area of Sápmi and many other countries where Indigenous people have a built tradition or aspire translate or to have their cultures translated in the built environment. This has been extended to landscape architecture, urban design, planning, public art, placemaking and other ways of contributing to the design of built environments.
The Nakpil-Bautista House is a bahay na bato ancestral home found in the district of Quiapo, Manila, the Philippines. It was built in 1914 by Arcadio Arellano. The house originally sat on two lots, having a total area of 500 square metres (5,400 sq ft).
Bahay na bato, also known in Cebuano as balay na bato or balay nga bato and in Spanish as casa Filipino, is a type of building originating during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. It is an updated version of the traditional bahay kubo of the Christianized lowlanders, known for its use of masonry in its construction, using stone and brick materials and later synthetic concrete, rather than just full organic materials of the former style. Its design has evolved throughout the ages, but still maintains the bahay kubo's architectural principle, which is adapted to the tropical climate, stormy season, and earthquake-prone environment of the whole archipelago of the Philippines, and fuses it with the influence of Spanish colonizers and Chinese traders. It is one of the many architecture throughout the Spanish Empire known as Arquitectura mestiza. The style is a hybrid of Austronesian, Spanish, and Chinese; and later, with early 20th-century American architecture, supporting the fact that the Philippines is a result of these cultures mixing. Its most common appearance features an elevated, overhanging wooden upper story standing on wooden posts in a rectangular arrangement as a foundation. The posts are placed behind Spanish-style solid stone blocks or bricks, giving the impression of a first floor. Still, the ground level contains storage rooms, cellars, shops, or other business-related functions. The second floor is the elevated residential apartment, as it is with the bahay kubo. The roof materials are either tiled or thatched with nipa, sago palm, or cogon, with later 19th-century designs featuring galvanization. Roof styles are traditionally high pitched and are include the gable roof, hip roof, East Asian hip roof, and the simpler East Asian hip-and-gable roof. Horses for carriages are housed in stables called caballerizas.
Amakan, also known as sawali in the northern Philippines, is a type of traditional woven split-bamboo mats used as walls, paneling, or wall cladding in the Philippines. They are woven into various intricate traditional patterns, often resulting in repeating diagonal, zigzag, or diamond-like shapes. The term "sawali" is more properly defined as twilled weaving patterns. The term can also be applied to baskets and banig, which also use the same weaving patterns. Amakan panels are commonly confused with pawid, which are made from thatched leaves.
Camiña Balay Nga Bato, formerly known as Avanceña House, is a century-old heritage house in the Arevalo district, Iloilo City, Philippines. It was built in 1865 and was designed by the first parish priest of Molo, Anselmo Avanceña, for Don Fernando Avanceña and his wife, Eulalia Abaja. It was then passed on from one family to another until it came under the Camiñas family.[1] It is now owned by the fourth generation of the original owners, Gerard Camiña, former director of the Land Transportation Office in Western Visayas, and his wife, Luth Camiña. The ancestral house was declared as an Important Cultural Property by the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) in 2015.
In Philippine architecture, the ventanilla is a small window or opening below a larger window's casement, created—often reaching the level of the floor—to allow either additional air into a room during hot days or some air during hot nights when the main window's panes are drawn. It also allows for more light to strike the floor.
| Official |  | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unofficial | |||||||
| National heroes |
| ||||||
| Traditional immobile |
|  |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional mobile | ||
| Open-air | ||
| Modern | ||
| Related topics | ||
